ALL FORMS OF PUBLIC ART

Featuring All Forms Of Public Art

infomatique

DOUBLE HELIX SCULPTURE BY BRIAN KING

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A GIFT FROM DR BEATE SCHULER

I had a interesting day today as I a made a number of discoveries while exploring Trinity college campus and later when I explored the Monkstown area of Dun laoghaire.

Dr Schuler is an international supporter of educational achievement in science, engineering and the environment through a wide range of activities including donations and scholarships and mentorship for young entrepreneurs.

She began her own career as a graduate of medicine from the University of Tübingen in Germany, eventually receiving a doctorate. In 1982 she founded a company called Iropharm Ltd in Ireland with her father Wilhelm. Built on a greenfield site in County Wicklow, Iropharm followed Wilhelm Schuler’s successful enterprise manufacturing antihistamines.

In 1997, Iropharm was sold to multinational Allied Signal Corporation for an undisclosed sum and Dr Schuler has since focused her efforts on supporting a wide range of education programmes and initiatives including providing fellowships and scholarships for students in Germany, Ireland and New Zealand. She is also an angel investor through a spin-out company from the University of Frankfurt.

Irish sculptor Brian King studied at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, where he later served as Head of the Department of Sculpture from 1984 to 2004. His large-scale painted metal sculptures imbue abstract geometric form with the emotions and movement of colour. King exhibited extensively in Ireland and Europe from the 1960s. He showed at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art from 1964 to 1978, and represented Ireland at the Paris Biennale in 1969 and 1983. His work is held in many public collections including Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane; Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork, and the University of Ulster.

James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Watson, Crick and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material”.

Today I used a Sony FX30 camera body which is an APS-C unit and I also used a Sony E PZ 18-105 mm f/4.0 G lens which I recently found in an unmarked box on a shelf in my bedroom. I must have obtained it before I started using full frame Sony cameras back in 2014.

RECLINING AND CONNECTED FORMS BY HENRY MOORE

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TODAY I USED A SONY FX30 AND A 18-105 LENS

Within a week I had the opportunity to photograph two sculptures by Henry Moore. Today I visited Trinity College in Dublin City centre and photographed Reclining And Connected Forms which is a 1969 bronze sculpture Forms. For some strange reason this appears to be ignored by visitors and tourists who photograph everything except this amazing and complexsculpture.

Years ago Henry Moore provided , on loan, a sculpture which became known as ‘The King And Queen’ and it was located on the Library forecourt but as he was not happy about the location he decided that it should be returned. He had not been happy with the location because he felt that there was a conflict with the forecourt lanterns and because there was not enough sunlight on the north facing forecourt.

The university worked persistently to find a replacement for the King and Queen and eventually proposed the work by Pomodoro which is now permanently installed on the forecourt and which appears to have been made for it. A perfect outcome.

Eventually Trinity obtained another work by Henry Moore, for which a location in Library Square was agreed and where it has remained.

Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced many drawings, including a series depicting Londoners sheltering from the Blitz during the Second World War, along with other graphic works on paper.

His forms are usually abstractions of the human figure, typically depicting mother-and-child or reclining figures. Moore’s works are usually suggestive of the female body, apart from a phase in the 1950s when he sculpted family groups. His forms are generally pierced or contain hollow spaces. Many interpreters liken the undulating form of his reclining figures to the landscape and hills of his Yorkshire birthplace.

Moore became well known through his carved marble and larger-scale abstract cast bronze sculptures, and was instrumental in introducing a particular form of modernism to the United Kingdom. His ability in later life to fulfil large-scale commissions made him exceptionally wealthy. Despite this, he lived frugally; most of the money he earned went towards endowing the Henry Moore Foundation, which continues to support education and promotion of the arts.

CHAC MOOL BY SEBASTIAN

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NEAR THE LINCOLN GATE ENTRANCE TO TRINITY COLLEGE

I must admit that I like this … well I like anything that is painted blue. Formally unveiled by Provost Patrick Prendergast and H.E. Ambassador Carlos García de Alba in the presence of the artist on the 18th of September 2015 to mark 40 years of Mexican-Irish Diplomatic Relations

Enrique Carbajal González was born in Chihuahua, Northern Mexico, shortly after the end of the Second World War. The artist adopted the pseudonym ‘Sebastián’ after the painting of the martyred Saint Sebastian by Sandro Botticelli. He is best known for his monumental public sculptures, created using steel or concrete, which can now be seen throughout the world. There are currently four of these sculptures in Ireland, all of which have been generously donated by the artist.

The term Chac Mool refers to a style of ancient Mesoamerican sculpture found in temples and sacred sites throughout Central Mexico. Appearing as a vehicle between man and the gods, it traditionally depicts a reclining figure with its legs bent upwards, resting on its elbows and with its face looking out over its shoulder. This specific type of sculpture was discovered in the 19th century by an archaeologist who named it after the greatest Mayan warrior, Chac Mool. As the artist explains, the colour blue was traditionally used to signify members of the priesthood in ancient frescoes and manuscripts. Although there has been little agreement by historians and anthropologists as to the function or meaning of these ancient sculptures, one interpretation is that they were created to commemorate fallen warriors and allow others to offer gifts to the gods in their memory.

Here on campus, Sebastián’s Chac Mool reinforces a powerful sculptural lineage, associating itself most particularly with Henry Moore’s work entitled Reclining Connected Forms (1969). Moore stated that, from an early stage, he was captivated by Mexican sculpture, particularly by the Chac Mool figure, leading him in 1929 to carve his own Chac Mool in Hornton stone which he later described as one of the key works of his career, from which his renowned reclining figures developed. Sebastián’s turquoise Chac Mool is a vital, contemporary invitation to engage with figure, form, colour and sculpted space within a rich visual arts ancestry.

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